SOLAR ENERGY
Tynsolar extends losses
Solar module maker Tynsolar Corp (頂晶科技) yesterday said it last month lost NT$10 million (US$328,753), widening from a loss of NT$7 million in the same period a year ago, a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) showed. The company lost a total of NT$17 million in February and last month, more than a loss of NT$10 million in the same period last year, the filing showed. The TWSE requested that Tynsolar disclose its financial figures due to an abnormal share price movement.
BANKING
Fubon silent on HK unit
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) yesterday declined to respond to speculation that it is looking to sell its Hong Kong-based banking unit. Analysts have said that Fubon Bank (Hong Kong) (富邦香港) earnings and market share have been slipping since 2011, and that a decision to sell the unit would not be improbable. The subsidiary last year contributed about 5.8 percent of Fubon Financial’s total earnings last year, company data showed.
INSURANCE
Transglobe still profitable
Transglobe Life Insurance Co (全球人壽) yesterday said that it has maintained profitability, despite the rapid appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar exhausting its foreign exchange reserves. As of the end of last quarter, foreign exchange reserves had fallen to NT$2 billion, down 47 percent from the same period a year ago, the company said. At the end of last year, the company’s investments totaled NT$900 billion, generating returns of 4.07 percent against a cost of capital of 4.27 percent, it added. Transglobe Life said that it is hoping to remedy its negative interest spread by 10 basis points annually as the US commences an interest rate increase cycle. Net income last year totaled NT$3 billion, it said.
MANUFACTURING
Kinpo receives certification
Kinpo Electronics Inc (金寶電子) yesterday announced that it has earned certification to use Medical Devices Directive CE marking, which it said would help expand its access to markets in the EU. The company outlined plans to leverage the new certification by teaming up with Makalot Industrial Co (聚陽實業), one of the nation’s top garment manufacturers, in a bid to win contracts for heart rate sensor-equipped smart apparel from international firms such as Under Armour Inc and Fila Inc. Kinpo said that it would also develop its own brand of heart rate monitor-equipped athletic wear featuring improved moisture wicking and muscle compression, adding that the new products are expected to launch in Taiwan and the US in the second half of this year. Kinpo sales last quarter rose 3.4 percent annually to NT$28.88 billion, the firm said.
AUTO INDUSTRY
Taipei trade shows open
The Taipei International Auto Parts and Accessories Show, as well as three other trade shows related to automotive products, yesterday opened at the Taipei World Trade Center and the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Hall. More than 1,300 local companies are taking part in the shows, which are to run through Sunday, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (外貿協會) said in a statement. Participants include Depo Auto Parts Industrial Co (帝寶工業) and SuperAlloy Industrial Co Ltd (巧新), it added. The four events are forecast to attract more than 6,700 foreign buyers, the council said.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the